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DoD Brings Changes to RIF Procedures

Friday, February 10, 2017

(National Federation of Federal Employees)

Many
NFFE DOD Locals have received the attached letterPolicy and Procedures for Reduction in Force
in the Civilian Workforce.
The policy is dated January 19, though you
probably received it later.It was
issued as a result of a change
in law contained in the National Defense
Authorization Act of 2016 (“NDAA”).
Against
the wishes of NFFE and other DoD unions, the
NDAA directed the Secretary of
Defense to establish procedures so that the
order of retention in a RIF is
based primarily on individual employee
performance.

Although
this change is occurring at the same time as
the roll out of New Beginnings Performance
Management initiative, it is a separate policy.
NFFE and other unions were very
involved in the development of New Beginnings.
However, we were not involved in
this RIF change and object to it. Does this
change mean that an employee with
thirty years of service, or a ten-point
veteran, could be placed behind a new
employee with an outstanding rating? Perhaps it
does. If so, it raises the
possibility of discrimination occurring against
employees based on age, race,
veteran’s status, or any other protected
class.

So,
how should NFFE locals respond to this notice?
Since the implementing policy is
in the nature of an agency rule, NFFE’s
position would be that any RIF
procedure in our contracts which conflicts with
the rule cannot go into effect
until the contract expires. Our contracts
“TRUMP” this rule to the extent there
is a conflict. Tell management that in
writing.

If
your contract does not address RIFs, management
still must negotiate the impact
and implementation of this procedure with the
Local before the policy is
implemented.

Step 1

As
a first step, look in your contract and
see if you have a deadline for submitting I and
I proposals. Before that
deadline occurs, ask for a “clarification
meeting” with HR so that management
can explain to you how they see this policy
impacting your workplace. Request an
extension of time so that
you can submit proposals after the
briefing.

Step 2

Submit an
information request
in order to ascertain whether or not this
change will have a discriminatory
impact on your bargaining unit
employees.

Request
the following data under 5 USC § 7114 (and
separately under FOIA if you can)
for each individual in your bargaining unit in
an excel spreadsheet:

•
Race

• National
Origin

•
Gender

•
Disability

• DOB (ask
for year of birth in one column
and month in
another)

• SCD (ask
for year in one column and month
in another)

• 5-point
vet status (Y/N)

• 10-point
vet status (Y/N)

•
Competitive or excepted
service

• Salary
grade

• Salary
scale (GS, WG,
Other)

• Overall
appraisal score for each of the
last three years (you need a standardized way
of expressing these, e.g.,
1-2-3-4-5 or U, MS, FS, ES, O,
etc.)

• Whether
they received a QSI in any of the
last three years

• Whether
they received a Sustained Superior
Performance award in any of the last three
years.

In
order to establish “particularized
need"
under 5 USC § 7114, make sure you explain that
the information is needed to
evaluate possible disparate
impact.

Ask
that you be given the information
before
your proposals become due. This will enable you
to evaluate the information
before you submit proposals.

If
management is pressing you for proposals,
propose that they run a mock RIF and
provide you the results so that you can assess
disparate impact.

Attached
is a list of
additional negotiable topics for procedural RIF
proposals.
If you have questions about how to proceed,
contact your business
representative, or Jeff Friday (jfriday@
NFFE.org) or Renee Mantone Catalano
(rmantone@NFFE.org)
of NFFE’s Office of General
Counsel.